1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to carton forming machinery. Specifically, the present invention relates to a carton erection arrangement between a supply of carton blanks and a mandrel arrangement on a form, fill and seal packaging machine in order to erect a carton having a non-traditional configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, cartons such as the familiar gable top carton have been formed on form, fill and seal packaging machines from flat blanks which are fed from a magazine. The blanks are erected on the magazine and transported to a bottom forming station which is usually a mandrel wheel. Once the bottom is formed, the cartons are placed on a conveyor for transport to further stations on the packaging machine. The traditional gable top carton has four sides and erecting the carton is accomplished by pushing on one edge of the blank to break the crease lines of the blank. Numerous inventions have been set forth for erection of traditional gable top cartons.
Most recently, the configurations of containers has become of renowed interest in the packaging industry. Although most of this configuration activity has taken place in plastic bottles, there has been some activity for cartons fabricated from blanks. One such carton is a beveled edge carton available from Tetra Pak, Inc. of Chicago, Ill. Another carton is an eight-sided gable top carton, also available from Tetra Pak, Inc. These non-traditional configuration cartons present a difficult problem to the packaging industry, that is properly erecting the carton for fabrication on a form, fill and seal packaging machine. As of yet, the packaging industry has been unable to resolve this problem and the problem of proper bottom forming of such a non-traditional configuration carton.